Mindstorm Rubik’s solver

It has been quite a while since we looked in on the world of automated Rubik’s cube solving. [David Gilday] built this one using LEGO Mindstorm parts. It uses a computer to calculate the solutions but unlike the standalone Tilted Twister, this creation can solve more than one type of cube. As long as the physical dimensions are between 5 and 6 centimeters on a side, the machine can solve 2, 3, 4, and 5 piece cubes. [David] wasn’t quite satisfied with that though. He built a separate machine to take care of the 6x6x6 cubes too. See both in action after the break.

The one thing dorkier (notice how I didn’t say nerdier) than playing with rubiks cubes – using lego blocks to solve them. This is a cool project and all but the people who play with rubiks cubes are almost universally douchebags.

Lego nullifies it a lot. Lego is in general pretty dorky but far less annoying. It is the type of people who walk around with rubiks cubes solving them in public, acting like memorizing algorithms is an accomplishment and deserves your attention that make most things involving rubiks cubes sketchy. Lego alleviates some of this as you are actually building and creating something rather than just being a hipster-geek trend whore, and the two cancel out a bit.

the “pie in the sky” idea to build a self solving cube could open a perfect excuse to play with some nitinol. By applying electricity you could manipulate the temperature of the material and get some movement out of it. Just a thought.

Well, the simplest self-solving cube would be one with 6 LCD’s on the sides, that simulate rotation by swapping colors :) I might build one, but I only have 5 identical LCD’s :(
So 6 nokia screens, one microcontroller (maybe 6 resistive touch-screens to allow for user interaction) and you have a new toy :D

Hi, im teaching a class about Lego Mindstorm and i already taught them how to use all the censors. there are two more 3 hour classes and i want to do a competition and declare a class champion. what should i have them do? something like an obstacle course would be nice but i don’t know what to have in it. im open to other ideas though.